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Rapid freezing of Great Lakes

rapid-freezing-of-great-lakes

Image credit: NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP/VIIRS. Acquired February 5, 2019

A rapid increase of ice coverage was observed on the Great Lakes following well below normal coverage during the first half of January and extremely cold Arctic Air that brought widespread record-breaking temperatures at the end of the month. 

Lake Erie had the most pronounced rise in ice, spiking from near 0% in mid-January to over 90% by the start of February, AccuWeather meteorologist and staff writer Brian Lada noted.

"As a result, February started off with more ice on the lake than any other year dating back to 2014, according to historical data from the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL). The same could be said for ice coverage on the Great Lakes as a whole."

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